Selected Customer Reviews
Futuristic, action-packed, and thought-provoking!
Ghost in the Shell is one of those titles that enjoy a lot of positive hype and popularity, but is not really all that. I had to watch it twice because I fell asleep the first time.
The opening sequence shows Major Motoko Kusanagi being cybernetically enhanced, something I found quite interesting to watch. The first part of GITS is explosive, and is guaranteed to get the adrenaline flowing. Even though things start to lag after Motoko's initial assault, GITS is generally packed with lot of great (and super violent) action sequences. It also poses a lot of valid questions regarding humanity and existence.
My main problem problem with GITS is it's too busy trying its darnedest to be profound, at the expense of boring the audience. Some will unavoidably get lost amidst the complex jargons and philosophical concepts that abound. It doesn't help that characterization is on the vague side too. The art and animation are definitely sophisticated. I liked the way they merged cel animation with computer graphics to give the visuals a realistic and yet ultra-slick look and feel. On a side note, GITS setting looks a lot like Hong Kong. The quality of the English dubbing on my laser disc was rather poor, as the voices were too soft to be heard clearly. The characters seem like they are always whispering or murmuring to each other. I had to switch to the Japanese dialogue and turn the English captions on so I could get wind of what they were saying.
GITS has its good points, but it's horrendously over-rated by most people.
One of the best anime out there!!
Let me start out this review by saying that this anime should be a martar for other anime to follow because it is an amazing anime. The plot is basically a cybernetic government agent, Major Motoko Kusanagi, who goes and tries to catch a computer virus called "The Puppet Master". From start to finish this movie is amazing with great animation and storyline. I think almost everybody should be able to see it as long as they are mature enough. There is a lot of violence and some language. Also, some slight nudity, but very non-sexual. Overall, I think this is one of the best anime ever.
an astounding vision
This is an incredibly conceived animation. I'm intirgued by how it has been dubbed into english, there are lots of blank spaces in the dialogue and stillness in the image that I'm guessing might come from a more involved Japanese original. The effect is that sometimes the pace looses dynamism, All in all though its an astounding vision and what really mkes it is the depth of the surround sound track, alongside some really great drawing of course.
